Customizable state machine for visual effect insertion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9905038-B2
Application number	US-201615043887-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2016
Priority date	Feb 15, 2016
Publication date	Feb 27, 2018
Grant date	Feb 27, 2018

Abstract

A computing system, driver and method for inserting an extra visual effect into a rendering pipeline of an application are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes: 1) loading into a driver a state machine that is customized for a particular application being rendered at a rendering pipeline; 2) identifying a point in the rendering pipeline to insert an extra visual effect using the state machine; and 3) inserting the extra visual effect into the rendering pipeline at the point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to insert an extra visual effect into a rendering pipeline of an application using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) driver, comprising:
loading into said GPU driver a state machine that is customized for said application;
identifying a point in said rendering pipeline to insert said extra visual effect using said state machine; and
inserting said extra visual effect into said rendering pipeline at said point.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said state machine includes a transition rule that detects a condition that causes a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said state machine includes a computation rule that triggers a computation is required to insert said extra visual effect at said point.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said point is a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said identifying includes detecting a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline using a transition rule of said state machine.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said inserting includes performing a computation that is required to insert said extra visual effect at said point using a computation rule of said state machine.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said extra visual effect is not built into said application.

8. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed, causes a processor to insert an extra visual effect into a rendering pipeline of an application by:
loading into a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) driver a state machine that is customized for said application;
identifying a point in said rendering pipeline to insert said extra visual effect using said state machine; and
inserting said extra visual effect into said rendering pipeline at said point.

9. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said state machine includes a transition rule that detects a condition that causes a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

10. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said state machine includes a computation rule that triggers a computation required to insert said extra visual effect at said point.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said point is a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said identifying includes detecting a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline using a transition rule of said state machine.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said inserting includes performing a computation that is required to insert said extra visual effect at said point using a computation rule of said state machine.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 8 , wherein said extra visual effect is not built into said application.

15. A computing system for inserting an extra visual effect into a rendering pipeline of an application, comprising:
a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) including a processor and said rendering pipeline; and
a driver that causes said processor to:
load into said driver a state machine that is customized for said application;
identify a point in said rendering pipeline to insert said extra visual effect using said state machine; and
insert said extra visual effect into said rendering pipeline at said point.

16. The computing system as recited in claim 15 , wherein said point is identified using a transition rule of said state machine that detects a condition that causes a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

17. The computing system as recited in claim 15 , wherein said extra visual effect is inserted using a computation rule of said state machine that triggers a computation required to insert said extra visual effect at said point.

18. The computing system as recited in claim 15 , wherein said point is a transition between natural states of said application in said rendering pipeline.

19. The computing system as recited in claim 15 , wherein said extra visual effect is not built into said application.

20. The computing system as recited in claim 15 , wherein said extra visual effect is a visual effect selected from the group consisting of:
an added graphical content display in said application;
a horizon-based ambient occlusion;
an anti-aliasing;
a tone mapping, and
a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mapping.

Assignees

• Nvidia Corp

Inventors

• Robbins Jonathan

Classifications

• G06T1/20

  Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining · CPC title

• G06T2207/20208

  High dynamic range [HDR] image processing · CPC title

• G06T15/005 Primary

  General purpose rendering architectures · CPC title

• G06T15/503

  Blending, e.g. for anti-aliasing · CPC title